1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to technology for controlling access to an external storage device.
2. Related Art
So-called externally attached external storage devices such as hard disk drives which are connected to a personal computer, for which the turning on and off of the power is linked with turning on and off of the power supply of the personal computer (hereafter called simply “external storage devices”) have become widespread. With this kind of external storage device, it is not necessary for the user to turn the power on and off when using the external storage device, so the convenience level is high. Also, when the personal computer power is off, the power of the external storage device is automatically turned off, so it is possible to suppress power consumption of the external storage device (consumption of standby power).
Also, even when the personal computer is in an on state, by stopping the operation of the external storage device when there is no access from the personal computer to the aforementioned external storage device for a specified time, it is further possible to save power with the external storage device. This function is possible by installing so-called utility software for realizing the function described above in a personal computer, for example.
However, with the technology described above, when stopping the operation of the external storage device, it becomes impossible to recognize the external storage device on the personal computer side, and there were times when it was not possible to use data stored in the external storage device. In this case, to have the external storage device recognized again by the personal computer, it was necessary for the user to do the work of, for example, restarting the personal computer, reconnecting the connection cable that connects the personal computer and the external storage device, activating the utility software for recognizing the external storage device again, restoring the communication between the personal computer and the external storage device, and restoring the operation of the external storage device.
The present invention was created to address the problems described above, and an advantage of some aspects of the invention is to improve the usability in saving power with the external storage device.
The entire disclosure of Japanese patent application No. 2008-126886 of BUFFALO is hereby incorporated by reference into this document.